Soccer Nanobots

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The “robot” in the video below is about half the width of a grain of rice. I’m not really sure if I’d call it a “robot”, because it’s more of a remote control device that’s being pushed around by EM fields from afar (so it has neither sensors nor autonomy on any level)… On one level it’s no more a robot than a leaf being blown around by a leaf blower, but at the same time, it’s definitely an eerie precursor of the many forms of limbs that shall tear us to bits in the impending robot apocalypse.

More details here.

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The Blind Leading The Blind

Sunday, May 18, 2008

I decided to do a new painting based on one of my favorite classic paintings, “The Blind Leading the Blind” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1568). It’s of course based on Matthew 15:14;

Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

This came after some debate on the specifics of religious ritual (which is why Bruegel would have chosen it I’m sure, as that was a big issue during his time); with Jesus saying that it’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you, but what comes out of your mouth, explaining (my paraphrase):

What you eat passes through you and leaves your body, but the words you speak come from your heart, and when evil comes from your heart, these defile you — eating with dirty hands will never defile you.

The reference itself is actually from the Katha Upanishad (about 900 BC, Vedic), which was first translated into Persian, and later made it into Europe and has been widely referenced;

The Hereafter never rises before the thoughtless child (the ignorant), deluded by the glamor of wealth. “This world alone is, there is none other”: thinking thus, he falls under my sway again and again.

There are many in the world, who, puffed up with intellectual conceit, believe that they are capable of guiding others. But although they may possess a certain amount of worldly wisdom, they are devoid of deeper understanding; therefore all that they say merely increases doubt and confusion in the minds of those who hear them. Hence they are likened to blind men leading the blind. The Hereafter does not shine before those who are lacking in the power of discrimination and are easily carried away therefore by the charm of fleeting objects. As children are tempted by toys, so they are tempted by pleasure, power, name and fame. To them these seem the only realities. Being thus attached to perishable things, they come many times under the dominion of death. There is one part of us which must die; there is another part which never dies. When a man can identify himself with his undying nature, which is one with God, then he overcomes death.

As it is often said that one should read the book instead of watching the movie, it’s often better to read Vedic scripture than Christian scripture. Anyway… Sorry about the poor photo.

the-blind-leading-the-blind.jpg

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Victoria Day Weekend

Sunday, May 18, 2008

I started work on a new painting today — “The Blind Leading The Blind” — you can get a deeper explanation and read more about it on I Need More Life if you’d like…

Yesterday Nefarious and I and Caitlin and her dad went to High Park… I think he may have been worried a bit by Nefarious’s climbing… She can do some pretty impressive stuff for a tiny person — in that picture she’s about ten feet off the ground, and got there after transferring across three or four structures which required some serious acrobatics. I definitely agree with the “freerange kids” theory… The paranoid over-protection we tend to do with kids in the Modern West leaves stunted adults with no sense of responsibility or maturity — to say nothing of it being pretty boring.

Nefarious is working on a new painting as well, a couple of feathered flying unicorn-slash-pegasus type creatures in a magical landscape… It got a bit muddied up in the painting stage because she wanted to do it without any help at all, but I think once she re-lines it, it’ll be well defined again.

Other than that, I think I’m moving my sites from Dreamhost‘s shared server space to Mediatemple‘s grid service, because even though I’ve been really happy with them on the whole, I don’t like the inability to handle spikes of traffic, and even my current sites consume a fair load (you’d be amazed how many people want to know what looks like a duck) to say nothing of future work.

Oh! Almost forgot — tonight I start reading Nefarious Alice In Wonderland, her first “real” book… Definitely looking forward to that.

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Future Beauties

Saturday, May 17, 2008

You know, I keep getting accused of secretly being a Muslim extremist, when all I want is my forty acres and a mule that I got promised, heh. Definitely surreal, definitely eye-opening, and definitely fascinating. Well, at least my sunflower seeds are going in nicely, and I’ve had fun fiddling with content management system options for my new site.

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Childhood’s End

Thursday, May 15, 2008

So I’m sitting at High Park this afternoon after school while Nefarious and a few of her friends played in the castle. I was sitting on the swing keeping an eye on them, and a couple fifteen or sixteen year old boys sat down on the swing next to me. I get a kick out of guys at that age, because they’re a hilarious mix of adult and child — it’s quite comical to watch them, totally “grown up” were we living in any other era, pushing each other on the swings. Were this anything but a rich, 21st century first-world nation they’d already be men, but our world is a soft one.

Anyway, this was their conversation…

Guy One: “Dude, are we too old to be doing this?”

Guy Two: “I don’t know, everyone here is really little…
         …but do you want to go play in the castle?”

Guy One: “Yeah, I’m really feeling this, dude.”

Guy Two: “Okay, let’s go.”

So yeah, up they went into the castle and slid down the spiral slide with the five year olds. Ah, to never lose one’s youth.

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